1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



215 



I never ga.\e her more than four to six quarts of 

 roots or one quart to three pints of oats or meal at 

 one time. I gave her bone meal once or twice a 

 week with the same result. 1 tried both English 

 and salt hay. She would stand with her head 

 down and back up. About four years ago I lost a 

 cow with about the same symptoms. I dont keep 

 tiut one cow. I am trying to raise the calf, but 

 she seems to have the same trouble about eating. 

 Chatham, Mass., MarchS, 1870. s. a. 



Remarks. — People ask questions in the Farmer 

 not because it is thought that the editors know 

 everything, but because the editors can put these 

 questions before an immense number of readers, 

 some of whom it is presumed can answer them. 

 In another column you will find a statement in 

 relation to a disease which we mistrust is the 

 same as that of which you inquire. In some parts 

 of Southeastern Massachusetts it prevails to an 

 alarming extent, and should at once be examined 

 into by men qualified for the task. 



STORING YEOETABLES IN CELLARS UNDER THE 

 DWELLING. 



Hon. Simon Brown : — Dear Sir, — It is still a 

 practice wiih some farmers,— I hope with but few, 

 — to store vegetal)les in 'Cellars under the dwelling. 

 To do something to put a stop to the practice by 

 the few who still persist in it, I addressed a note 

 to Dr. Bowditch, and received the enclosed reply, 

 which needs no comment from me. I think you 

 will do well to insert it in your most valuable 

 paper. D. B. Flint. 



Boston, Feb., 1870. 



Having been requested to give an opinion con- 

 cerning the ttfjcts upon health caused by storing 

 vegetables in the cellars of occupied dwellings, we 

 would reply : — 



1st. Tliat while such vegetables are entirely free 

 from decay, the practice is probably harmless. 



2d. It is perfectly certain that decaying vegeta- 

 ble matter gives rise, in a way which science has 

 not yet fully explaiaed, to exhalations which are 

 poisonous, that they taint the air with which they 

 are in contact, that they seem to invite the attack 

 of epidemics, that they diminish the power of the 

 body to resist disease of every kind, and that they 

 are especially favorable to the production of 

 levers. 



3d. That the air of a cellar cannot be prevented 

 from passing throughout the building under 

 which it is placed. 



For these reasons we are of opinion that the 

 practice of storing the produce of the farm in the 

 cellars of dwelling houses, is always attended with 

 danger, and ought to be given up, since the utmost 

 care is required iu the course of our long winters, 

 to prevent decomposition from taking place. 



Signed 



Henry Bowditch, M. D., ^ Members of the 

 Gkoiioe Dbuhy, M.D., ^ Mass.^'State 

 R. T. Davis, M. D., ) Board of Health." 



SWAPPING COWS. 



I am an amateur fiirmer, and cultivate a "little 

 place out of town," and one of the appurtenances 

 thereto t)elonging is a three-year-old heifer, that I 

 purchased when a yearling, and having made 

 quite a pet of her, we hate to part with her. But 

 one of my neighbors who has "farmed it fur forty 

 years" tells me she is not worth keeping. I de- 

 sire to tell you just her olfunce, and then if you 

 please, give me your opinion concerning her. 



iShe gave birth last June to a nice heifer calf, 



and through the summer gave nine quarts of milk 

 per day, of excellent quality. In the fall she fell 

 to six quarts, and through the winter, up to date, 

 has given five quarts. She has one pint of meal 

 twice a day, made into porridge, and given warm ; 

 hay cut and steamed, and three times a week one 

 peck of carrots. Now my neighbor tells me that 

 with the care she gets she should yield twice as 

 much, and I desire to know whether I am making 

 a mistake or not. She is now with calf and comes 

 in Julv first. Amatevr. 



Medford, Mass., March 6, 1870. 



Remarks. — Nine quarts of excellent milk, and 

 only a three-year-old heifer. Keep your pet by all 

 means, at least another year, and compare her 

 yield and the quality of her milk with that pro- 

 duced by your neighbor's cow that is worth keep- 

 ing. Lincoln's story about swapping horses in 

 the middle of the stream, has a moral for you. 



SOAVING wheat— PREPARATION OF SEED — YIELD. 



As the low price of flour may cause some Ver- 

 mont farmers to neglect the wheat crop the com- 

 ing spring, allow me to suggest some reasons for 

 extending its cultivation. Wheat adds one crop 

 in rotation ; it increases the aggregate income 

 from our farms; it saves paying out our money 

 for flour; with clean wheat and good flouring 

 mills we produce a better quality of flour than the 

 average of that for sale; we get better grass in 

 seeding with wheat, to say nothing of the pleasure 

 one feels in eating bread of his own raising. 



In raising wheat as well as all other grain, far- 

 mers begin to realize the necessity of sowing per- 

 fect seed ; and many plans have been suggested 

 for securing this result, such as selecting the best 

 heads, &c. The plan I have pursued for four 

 years with very good success is this : — I take out 

 all the small and imperfect kernels of wheat with 

 one of "Sanford Adams' wheat screens;" then 

 wash in strong brine, and sift, in as much air slaked 

 lime as will adhere to the wheat. The result is 

 no smut, a larger yield, larger berry, and an in- 

 crease in quantity and improvement in quality of 

 flour. I sow the variety known as the "Dodge 

 Wheat." My largest crop was forty-five bushels 

 per acre ; average for four years thirty- five. 



Cabot, Vt., March 4, 1870. A. M. Foster. 



SAP SPOL'TS AND TAPPING. 



As the sugar season approaches it is in order for 

 us first to determine what we will use, then to get 

 our fixtures in readiness. There are a great vari- 

 ety of spouts recommended. One says use round 

 tin spouts driven into the bark. Many tap soft 

 maples, more or less. With such spouts driven into 

 the outer bark of that tree, the sap comes in con- 

 tact with the coloring matter of the inner bark, 

 and is so discolored as to injure both the flavor 

 and appearance of the sugar. 



S'x)uts that are diiven sufficiently firm to hold a 

 bucket of s.ip, require a larger hole than would 

 otherwise be necessary ; and most of them cover 

 too much of the outer surface of the wood where 

 the sap flows most freely. Another objection is 

 that many of the improved, as well as the ill- 

 shapcn, old-fashioned spouts, require a deeper 

 hole than we can afford, now that our trees have 

 become valuable. 



I prclcr setting to hanging my buckets. The 

 time and expense necessary to fit the buckets and 

 spouts or spikes for hanging is sutficicnt to ar- 

 range blocks, or stones, lor the buckets to stand 

 on, which, with care, will last f)r years, or an age. 

 It is common to see buckets small at the bottom, 

 hanging "breast high," with the side next the tree 



